Jumping on the hype of Stephenie Meyer’s beloved novels, the Twilight movie franchise became an absolute sensation upon arriving in theaters in 2008. The trio of leading actors became megastars in the process: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner. The latter actor became a sex symbol in the process, thanks to his innumerable shirtless scenes. Lautner recently described the “absolute nightmare” of getting into Jacob shape (and maintaining it for the movies).
Taylor Lautner appeared in every installment of the Twilight film franchise, but his role (and his body) got much bigger starting with New Moon. While this helped to sell movie tickets and make Lautner a huge star, this physical transformation wasn’t without sacrifice for the young actor. As he recently explained during a conversation with Yahoo!:
For this little role that I did starting when I was 16, I was 140 pounds and I had to put on 35 pounds of muscle to keep my role. That was an absolute nightmare in the diet compartment — raw sweet potatoes and turkey patties and protein shakes that were essentially just mud. That was rough. I had to consume at least 5,000 calories a day to maintain the weight that I was at.
Yikes. While Taylor Lautner was definitely in killer shape for the Twilight movies, it was part of a very specific plan. In addition to putting in a ton of time at the gym, Lautner also needed to consume a crazy amount of calories in order to gain a whopping 35 pounds of muscle. While it’s been years since he ended his role as Jacob, it sounds like the physical prep is still weighing on him– literally.
Taylor Lautner’s comments to Yahoo! come from a larger conversation about his relationship with food for their segment titled Glazed. While celebrating the types of foods he enjoys to cook and eat, eventually, the conversation focused on a time when he had to be very specific about what was going into his body. And the type of food he consumed for Twilight is on the list of things he’s not interested in eating nowadays.
Putting on 35 pounds of muscle is no easy feat, even if you’ve got the best nutritionist and personal trainer in the world. And while we’ve seen other actors like Christian Bale and various MCU heroes drastically change their bodies for a role, Lautner did it as a teenager. What’s more, he had to keep consuming all those calories for four years and change as the Twilight movies were filmed and released.
Now Taylor Lautner is able to enjoy a more casual relationship with food, sharing meals with his fiancée Taylor Dome. The internet broke at the news of their engagement, with the public and even celebs like Keke Palmer taking an interest in their shared name. Of course, Lautner will always be Jacob to many hardcore Twilight fans out there, and he recently said he wouldn’t be opposed to reprising his signature role sometime in the future.
The Twilight franchise is currently streaming in its entirety over on Amazon. Be sure to check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
